Posts Tagged ‘internet’

There are a few very simple steps to follow to schedule your time and have a great day. Do them daily, and you’ll have a great week. That’s not what we’ll cover here.

We want to know how to maximize the first hour of the day!(or so) so we get a great start to the day and keep it going. Here goes:

Alarm goes off. No snooze button. Before your feet hit the floor say this verbatim, “This is going to be a great day for me.” That’s it. That’s all you have to do to set your mind and start the engine correctly. But there’s more. 14 seconds

Wash your face or whatever you do for the morning wake up ritual. Shake out the cobwebs of the night and get things going. 35 seconds

No email, no social media. This is ‘me time’ and not they time. Read your goals. Surely you set goals and are working on them. Do email at the office. 2 minutes

Write 10 things you want to accomplish in the next 30 days. Simple goals. But important. Do this every day. 4 minutes

Meditate, pray. Connect with a higher power. It’s the only way. Clear your mind. Be with yourself. De-clutter. 10 minutes.

Eat a small piece of fruit. Apple, banana whatever. On the way to workout.

Exercise routine. Whatever it is. 1 hour minimum.

Get your morning nutrition. 30 minutes

Read something worthwhile with your breakfast: spiritual, news, schedule for the day, but still not emails. Get on those when you begin your day in the office.

Get to your day. Tackle the one thing that you really don’t want to do. It’s called “Eat the Big Green Frog.”

We have time for all of these actions. Add up the times. This ain’t difficult.

That reminder comes along a little more frequently than I’d like. Yep, it’s a function of time. That’s one way of saying ‘age.’

We can watch relatively young-year-olds retire and within a few years look like they’ve been pulled through a keyhole. Then a 90-year old gets her college degree, climbs Mt. Tall As Hell, learns to play a musical instrument. What’s the difference.

Best I can tell it’s several things and I’m going to give you a list. The great thing is…you can start on the list now, any time, at any age. So, go ahead.

Give yourself an Attitude boost and chose to be a Fountain, not a Drain.

Read, educate yourself, learn something new every day, teach someone.

Eat right, exercise, walk, watch the sunrise and set.

Avoid the negative people, media, events. Just get the heck away from them.

Turn off your TV. See above.

Listen to the birds. You heard right. Watch them. You’ll feel better in about 7 seconds.

This is adapted from a blog by Gary Genard, July 2013. The message to you as a leader is inescapable. When we address our team we are giving a speech, motivating people. Improve your message with a story that connects to the emotion you seek to move.

Most managers/leaders feel that when they address their employees their job is “to convey facts and figures.” That’s not it. More accurately their job is meeting the needs of the listeners and achieving a lasting influence. This applies if you are delivering a speech to a general audience or delivering a message to your employees.

Employees and audiences will remember their emotional response to you long after the information you deliver has faded from memory. The retention skills of audiences are notoriously shaky, and within a week, listeners will remember as little as 10% of the “critical” data you presented to them. Yet if you touched them emotionally, they may remember you for a lifetime. Consider these examples:

JFK’s inauguration speech

MLK’s “I have a dream speech”

FDR’s address to congress to declare war on Japan… “A day which will live in infamy”

Don’t just educate; move your audience. Don’t inform listeners; inspire them. To do so means creating an emotional connection. Even CFOs must put financial information into context for the C-suite, to help these executives process the information in terms of company goals and initiatives.

No leader succeeds merely by possessing the best information. True leaders use that information to motivate and activate employees and followers.

There is only one tool that allows you as speaker to accomplish this task: It is you—physically, emotionally, and in the ways you demonstrate leadership when you speak. In tough times or good times, you are the message. It’s a formula for succeeding as a speaker that goes far beyond “conveying facts and figures.”

Give your audiences the emotional connection and leadership they crave, and you’ll be delivering a powerful message indeed.

Seeking to better ourselves at communication we learn why stories are effective, why people respond to stories and where to look for them. We learn to engage, be authentic, real and relevant. Learn to paint a picture with words. This is not about jokes or inane stories. This is about PROFESSIONAL, EXECUTIVE communication so you can grow. And your company.

“Storytelling in business has emerged as a key leadership competency and communication skill. When done well it is a powerful method to connect, engage and influence people more effectively.” from blog by: Gabrielle Dolan

I can’t build on the Admiral’s comments. They are, in my opinion, the best I’ve heard in a long,long time. He’s relevant, basic and sincere. No hype in this. No do-like-I-do preaching. It’s a message that will live a long time.

Copy the text and save it for your children and grand children. It will be relevant then too.

One hot summer day the boy and his friend took a long bicycle ride, ending up 10 miles from home at the small local airport. The serving counter of the café inside the terminal promised a cold glass of ice water.

The waitress asked the boy what he wanted. Water would be great, he had no money. His friend had a dime and could order a coke. The two sat and talked about their “adventure” ride from home, as 12 year old boys will do. The boy noticed the waitress approaching.

She put a coke in front of the boy. “Ma’am” I don’t have any money”. She told the boy that a customer had overheard him and bought a coke for him. The stranger had already departed the café.

At that moment there was no one to thank. So, for 50+ years he has remembered and built on the stranger’s kindness. How many lessons are in that experience?

Sharing without keeping score. Pay it forward. It was all about a bicycle ride.

Be conscious of the decisions and choices you make. It really is possible to design a life that works – that enables you to enjoy a profitable career, enjoy a great family life and participate in leisure activities. And it all begins with the choices you make… the decisions you make.

The wisest question ever asked is “What would you like to do if money were no object and you knew you could not fail?” Whatever that is, that is what you should be doing. Why? Work is not work when it is fun and enjoyable, and when you are doing something like this, something that you love to do, you generally do it very well… so well, in fact, that you can make a lot of money from it.

In North Carolina today we have had more than the usual snowfall, the entire eastern half of the U. S. is covered in snow and ice. Some places are without power so it’s not all fun. Driving can be a challenge. But in all I have to tell you it feels like when I was a little guy of 12 years old. The world is quiet when snow is falling, except for the birds.

There’s one thing I wish I could do. Walk into the next room and ask Momma if it would be ok to go out and play in the snow. Just one more time. Get all her instructions to bundle up, then blast through the door and outside. Come home and you know what would be waiting…a cup of her hot chocolate. Just one more time. Tell her about the afternoon outside romping in the snow. Just one more time.

I’ll count myself lucky to have had her for so long. Received all those instructions. All that hot chocolate.

Check Vitamin D level. Helps with cell division. When cells can’t divide the effects of aging become more noticeable.

Changes that are legislated or forced upon us and are not our options are usually harder to deal with. My experience with those businesses and people who successfully dealt with this kind of change (deregulation of the Financial Services Industry in the 1980s-90s; NAFTAs impact on the textile industry in the 1990s) is this: They determined strategies for actions they would take and set goals on how to adjust. They stayed very focused and clear on what they wanted and maintained the disciplined effort required to achieve their goals. I wish I could tell you that there’s a magic bullet. There isn’t. But it’s not difficult to set you mind to a strategy. If it doesn’t work, set another one. If you are moving and taking action you will eventually succeed.

Walk 30 minutes. Try to do it daily. Regular exercise…you know the drill.

We can create an immunity shield in our personal and business lives. It’s simply our ATTITUDE. I have witnessed people make themselves healthy or sick just by the way they look at life. I don’t want you to be an ostrich or Peter Pan. Crummy things are going to happen. Get over it and get moving with positive actions. Get away from negative people, turn off TV, find something to occupy your time. One of my great friends in life was suddenly struck with the Bubonic Plague. That’s the Black Plague that killed 40% of Europe in the 1400’s. He’s alive and well today. It had a devastating affect on him, but he didn’t quit. And it would have been easy. There are very few excuses to justify not trying, not righting your ship. You’re not paying attention if you believe the world is against you. Get moving, now.